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Neil Armstrong

The American astronaut
Neil Alden Armstrong, b. Wapakoneta, Ohio, Aug. 5, 1930, was the first
person to walk on the Moon. Armstrong received his pilot's license on
his 16th birthday. After two years at Purdue University, he joined the
navy and flew combat missions over Korea. He returned to Purdue, obtained
his aeronautical engineering degree in 1955, and became a test pilot.
At Edwards Air Force base he flew the X-15 rocket plane seven times. In
1962 he was selected as an astronaut. His first flight (1966), as commander
of Gemini> 8, was aborted by a thruster failure after 10 hr 41 min.

Armstrong was later
assigned as commander of Apollo11, the first U.S. attempt to land on the
Moon. On July 20, 1969, Armstrong and lunar module pilot Edwin E. Aldrin
landed the Apollo 11 lunar module Eagle on the Moon at the
Sea of Tranquility. At 10:56:20 pm Eastern Daylight Time (EDT), he planted
his left foot on the lunar surface and proclaimed: "That's one small step
for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind." He later said that he intended
to say "a," but tape static leaves this uncertain. After serving as deputy
associate administrator for aeronautics, Armstrong retired from NASA to
be a professor of engineering at the University of Cincinnati (197179)
and thereafter a computer company executive. In 1986 he served as vice-chairman
of the presidential commission appointed to investigate the destruction
of the Space ShuttleChallenger in January 1986.

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